Lifting Points

[Heima]

So I am wanting to rotate the tires, and am trying to determine good lifting points. Yes, I know of the triangles on the rocker panels that indicate the lifting points. But those rocker panels were intentionally made for the ICE vehicle. Also, when you look in the service manual, they indicate the same locations for lifting, but show the ICE vehicle being lifted. In other words, they just copied the picture over from the ICE service manual.

Maybe the front lifting points are ok? Because the electric motor and gearbox weigh similar to an engine and transmission? But at the rear its different. A fuel tank with 12 gallons of gas will weigh about 100 pounds, yet the battery pack is about 700 pounds? I cannot imagine that the pinch welds at the rear will be strong enough to handle that extra 600 pounds.

I am looking at the rear suspension, and see that where the lower control arms attach to the knuckle might be good spot. Might.

As an aside, do any autoparts stores sell blocks to accommodate the pinch weld lifting points?

Thanks

 

[Anti_Climax]

Those lift points would not be in a different spot even if it were a custom platform, they are as far out as they can reasonably be inside the wheelbase, like pretty much every passenger car in recent decades.

They have to be built with a very large margin of safety from the beginning. The fact that the car weighs more than the original model does not mean it weighs more than they can handle without damage.

But don't think that is speculation - l lifted my 2012, with the upgraded battery, up on jack stands at those four points and left it there a year. No problem at all. During that process there were times where it was balanced on two diagonal points, since I had to raise each jackstand one notch at a time.

 

[triangles]

I use the crossmember in between the rear wheels for lifting the back. I have used the control arm right under the spring but that is super sketchy and I wouldn't recommend doing that. Not sure how to describe what I use for a lifting point in the front. but it's a significant frame piece. I don't use the rocker panel lift points as that lead to some serious rocker panel rot in my old ICE car from the paint chipping on that pinch weld.

 

[Anti_Climax]

If you're in a place where rust is a consideration, go that route. I'm in Phoenix so those standard points don't ever see that type of issue.

 

[calvinhc]

So I am wanting to rotate the tires, and am trying to determine good lifting points. Yes, I know of the triangles on the rocker panels that indicate the lifting points. But those rocker panels were intentionally made for the ICE vehicle. Also, when you look in the service manual, they indicate the same locations for lifting, but show the ICE vehicle being lifted. In other words, they just copied the picture over from the ICE service manual.

Maybe the front lifting points are ok? Because the electric motor and gearbox weigh similar to an engine and transmission? But at the rear its different.

As I live just outside of Toronto, winter tires are a good thing, not only for better traction in slow, but for better traction on dry pavement colder than 7C (about 45F). My FFE came with winter tires when I received it in November 2017, but since that time, I have done ten changes between the winters and the "all seasons". Spring and fall of each year from 2018 to 2022.

Yes, the rear of the vehicle is significantly heavier than the front, and I would say noticeably heavier than the front of an ICE Focus, as we had one of those as well until the fall of 2021. In all these changes, the identified lift points have worked perfectly fine.

For safety, I use blocks under the beam/piece across the back - forgive me for not knowing the correct term. For the front, a block is placed next to where the jack is located at the lift point.

 

[moquiti]

There is something called a pinch weld block that can rest on the jacking plate of a floor jack which in theory straddles the pinch weld. However, the welded flange on the FFE is about 7/8" deep and I haven't seen blocks available that have a groove that deep. In addition, the plastic trim covering the rocker panel doesn't have a relief molded into it that is wide enough to allow any of the commercial blocks to bear on metal outboard of the weld flange without also crushing the plastic trim. If you want to use a block at the specified jacking points it'd be best to fabricate one.

I was able to use a grooved block of wood for the rear point (that I've used on other vehicles), but it wouldn't work for the front. There wasn't the clearance. I couldn't locate anything at the local auto parts stores, and I didn't have the time to fabricate anything from scratch. After searching the FFE forums a response by Glucifer in a similar thread suggested jacking from the lower battery frame:
( https://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=23766#p23766 ).

This worked fine for me. You can lift the car high enough to place jack stands at the front & rear: @front, just inboard of the lower A-arms, and @rear, just inboard of the control arm pivot, and bearing on the cross-member. You can place two stands close together there or just one with a block. It's easier to do the wheel change with all 4 wheels off the ground rather than repositioning the jack as you work.